Coke's Secret Recipe Revealed

Coca-Cola pulls in an annual revenue of 6.71 billion dollars, which we estimate is about 8 trillion cans of soda. Any plutocrat would thirst after the secret to the beverage’s success, so Coke shelters the formula in equal parts intrigue and propaganda–as well as reportedly a volt at SunTrust Bank.

The company savors in the publicity of rumors of only two people knowing the formula at any given time; executives who aren’t allowed to fly in the same plane lest it should crash and incinerate the instructions for eternity. They flash teases of a wacky algorithm for the recipe in their commercials during the Super Bowl playoffs. They profit.

(Coke formula from 2011 commercial. Photo by Emily Fleischaker)

This American Life tackled the Coke formula’s mystery this weekend. Host Ira Glass told the story of how Coke founder Asa Candler supposedly removed the labels from all the ingredient bottles that make up 7X, the code name given to the mixture. He would go through any mail to purge invoices for ingredients to prevent anyone in the accounting department from getting any inklings.

Then T.A.L. tracked down what likely may be the original recipe for the brand. On page 2B of the February 18, 1979 edition of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, a columnist named Charles Salter published the fabled recipe that was originally transcribed from a pharmaceutical book of recipes–all written by hand–of various ointments, remedies, and “Coco Cola.” There is a convoluted story of how this and that friend of this and that acquaintance of John Pemberton, Coke’s inventor, initially acquired the recipe for the book, but in any case, it ended up in Ira Glass’s pocket and over the radio waves.

The show concocted the recipe and pitted it against purchased Coke through a blind taste test at a supermarket. While 93% of participants could tell the real Coke from the show’s version, 60% preferred the one using this recipe from the paper:

*Coco leaves contain cocaine so they’re not easy to track down. In fact, only one plant in New Jersey has a DEA permit to import and decocainize the leaves. Coca Cola started using decocainized leaves in 1903.